Title:
A Domain-Specific Language for Telephony Services - A Progress Report
Charles Consel
Abstract:
Modern telephony is increasingly relying on the IP network. As a
consequence, modern telephony platforms are distributed systems, based
on a client-server model and standardized protocols. The shift of
telephony to the computer network realm has brought a number of
benefits in terms of versatility and openness. However, this evolution
has created a number of software engineering challenges. Notably,
-
Telephony services are no longer a monopoly of the
manufacturers. This raises a number of safety and security issues on
services that are no longer certified by a manufacturer.
- Although accessible, programming telephony services requires an
intimate knowledge of a number of topics: the telephony domain, the
underlying protocols, a given platform and its programming interface.
We believe that these challenges can be addressed by the
domain-specific language approach. We have designed a domain-specific
language, called SPL (Session Processing Language), that abstracts
over the intricacies of the telephony domain and platforms. To ensure
safety and security of a telephony service written in SPL, the
language is both restricted and enriched, compared to a
general-purpose language.
In this talk, we present the key challenges for developing telephony
services. We introduce the SPL language, its key concepts and
abstractions, and illustrate it with examples. We briefly sketch its
formalization. Finally, we list some safety and security properties
that are enabled by the language.